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Today, upon the occasion of Joe Biden’s selection as Barack Obama’s vice-presidential candidate, I received a press release from the executive director of Catholics United, which claims to be a …

“non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to promoting the message of justice and the common good found at the heart of the Catholic Social Tradition.”

I wish I could agree this is in reality the case. First, let’s take a look at their press release, briefly:

“Catholics United believes Senator Biden?s selection as vice presidential candidate is a positive development for Americans who respect leaders who have strong religious, family, and personal values. Senator Biden?s well-known commitment to his Catholic faith has inspired his advocacy on issues such as genocide, universal health care, education, workers? rights, and violence against women. His faith has helped him to find solace during times of tragedy and crisis.?

Notably absent: defense of the unborn. I’m sorry, but nothing is closer to the “heart of the Catholic Social Tradition” than the dignity and right of all human beings to life. Next:

?We are optimistic that Senator Biden?s history of seeking practical means of addressing abortion will help move our nation beyond the divisive, acrimonious, and unproductive debate that has come to surround the issue. Senator Biden accepts his church?s teachings on human life and can work to advance these teachings in ways that Americans of all political persuasions can support.?

Biden’s “practical means of addressing abortion” have been, historically, to allow and never restrict it. His choices continue the debate on abortion because he has not actually helped “address” the problem at all.

Now here’s my favorite paragraph:

?Catholics United is especially hopeful that operatives on the far right will refrain from using Senator Biden?s faith and the teachings of the Catholic Church as political weapons in the coming campaign. Faith and values should be used to unite Americans behind solutions to the key challenges of this age ? war, poverty, lack of health care, and a looming climate crisis ? and not as partisan wedges to divide voters.?

You’ve got to be kidding me. Clearly this organization defines the “heart of the Catholic Social Tradition” to be silencing the actual “teachings of the Catholic Church,” ignoring the need to live one’s faith even in the public forum, and excluding the defense of human life from the “key challenges of this age.”

For an organization that claims to be non-partisan, why exactly does everything in these three paragraphs seem like it is lifted directly from this year’s democrat playbook on faith and religion?

Not convinced? The author of this press release, Chris Korzen…

recently took part in a Democratic conference call (along side promininant pro-Obama Catholic Douglas Kmiec) to prepare for the upcoming national convention. [source]

Honestly, just look through the Catholics Unitedrecent posts and try to find a single post that isn’t critical of republicans and supportive of democrats.

(All of this is bad enough, but I really start scratching my head when Catholics United and Chris Korzen are uncritically included, for instance, in CNS blog coverage … did they do no research?)

I don’t get angered by liberals disagreeing with the social teachings of the Church. I don’t get especially angered at Catholics dissenting from the teachings of the Church, as long as they admit they are dissenting. But I do get angry, and cannot tolerate, when liberal Catholics falsely claim their opinions to be in harmony with the Church’s social teaching when in fact they are not.

That’s really the only reason Catholics United deserves any of my time. And I refuse to join them.

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